


Trees

by Sulien



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Geekery, Gen, Humor, Smart Jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-08 22:37:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4323423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sulien/pseuds/Sulien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack O'Neill and trees. Stargate SG-1 original team, humor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trees

Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Stargate or SG-1, MGM, Gecko, etc. own them. I just want to bring them home and pet them and love them and feed them cookies and call them 'George'. No, wait, that's General Hammond...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SG-1 stepped out of the ‘Gate and stood looking around the small clearing in which the gate platform stood. The surrounding forest had a sense of timelessness and power to it. The smallest tree they could see was at least twenty feet in diameter, the larger ones they could estimate at well over fifty and they could barely see the tops of any of them. The sun was just rising at their location and its light was turning the mist that ghosted through the trees, and the ferns at their bases, to what looked like translucent, molten gold. The air was filled with a thick, heady smell similar to amber perfume, but much more resinous and rich.

Colonel Jack O’Neill bent over and picked up a handful of needles and a small cone from the gate platform, examining them. “Holy ent forest. I know redwoods got big back when, but...wow.”

Carter pulled her attention away from the trees surrounding them. “Sir?”

Daniel glanced back toward his teammates from where he had been about to descend the steps of the platform. “These are...”

“Sequoia Sempervirens,” Jack startled the other members of his team with the statement. “Known commonly as Coast Redwoods. They originated in the Cretaceous period and only grow along the West Coast, ranging from the central coast of California up to the most southern part of Oregon. They only grow about twenty miles inland, because they depend on the coastal fog for water during the dry summers.”

Carter and Daniel were too surprised to speak, but Teal’c managed to do so for all of them. “I thought you were not overly fond of trees, O’Neill.”

“Generally, I’m not. But redwoods aren’t trees,” Jack replied with a sense of wonder, yet somehow still managing to look slightly smug, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet and gesturing outward with both hands. “They’re _trees_.” His team stared at him for another moment before he finally said, “What, I can't actually like some trees?”

“Sir, it's not that you actually like these trees, it's the fact that you just spouted off their taxonomy, origin and natural range,” Carter said, still looking at her CO as if someone had hit her between the eyes with something heavy. "And, well yeah, the fact that you actually like these trees."

“Uh...right...what she said, Jack,” Daniel added with the same look.

“'What she said', Daniel? You mean I actually have you at a loss for words?” Jack said, grinning. “Just remember, you people don't know everything there is to know about me. I have to have a few surprises left.”

“You are a man of many surprises, O'Neill,” Teal'c said, giving his friend a nod of acknowledgment. Then, with the slightest upward quirk of his lips, “Indeed, you have caught us with our feet affixed.”

“Flat footed, T, flat footed,” Jack rolled his eyes, giving his friend the expected reaction. Then, grinning again and clapping his hands, “Okay, people, let's make camp and get these surveys started. We've got samples to take and trees to explore!”

Jack followed his team down the steps of the gate platform and onto the soft, needle covered ground and took a deep breath of the unique scent of the trees and smiled smugly. Having people underestimate him intellectually came in damn handy at times. He had to admit, though, that at it's best, it was just plain fun. Besides, he really was looking forward to exploring these trees.

\--------------------------------------

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s notes:
> 
> I was thinking of my favorite place (anywhere coast redwoods grow) and picturing Colonel O'Neill there, and this ficlet came to mind. I gave the estimate of at least a fifty foot diameter for the largest tree based on a family circle of trees I saw in Henry Cowell State Park in the Santa Cruz area of California. One of the ways Sequoia Sempervirens reproduce is to send up sprouts from burls around the base of the tree. When the parent tree dies, the trees that sprouted from it remain in a ring. No coast redwoods that large exist on the planet today, that we know of. Here is a website for those interested in learning more about redwoods and a Google search using “Sequoia Sempervirens” will turn up a lot more.
> 
> http://bss.sfsu.edu/holzman/courses/Fall99Projects/redwood.htm
> 
> Lastly, there's a lot more to Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill than he ever lets on and he's got the wool thoroughly pulled over the eyes of just about everyone.


End file.
